America’s Cultural Heritage and Green Diplomacy

Ms. Colleen Graffy, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, tried to present another perspective of the US policy on Green diplomacy, an issue on which the United States have been condemned so many times by other nations for not trying so hard – mainly because of the refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol. In a discussion organised by ELIAMEP and Elliniki Etaireia, she explains her public diplomacy role.

First pillar of public diplomacy: e-government communications strategy

Public diplomacy is the roadmap of “how do governments communicate with the people of another country, how they communicate their policies, their values and their culture”. Nowadays, the means to do so (internet, TV) play a major role in the formulation of such policies. A key feature is how this message is received from the outer world. For this reason the US government has created a huge media hub in Brussels, as the center of input and output of information in Eurasia.

Second pillar of public diplomacy: international cooperation on environmental issues

Equally important is the second pillar of public diplomacy, relationship building. The US is engaged in the second through cultural diplomacy, sports diplomacy, educational exchanges, and green diplomacy.

On the latter DAS Graffy maintained the opinion that US does much but does not communicate them well. When domestic decisions are perceived differently in the outer world, public diplomacy comes to fill the void. In this context, she presented a series of initiatives, such as the exploitation of solar and wind power, the methane recovery, as well as the Asia – Pacific Partnership on clean development and climate. She called upon the key economies and industries to invest in innovation and technology for sustainable development, projecting the interest of the US administration for a “greener” future.